Pension trustee repays Waikiki nights

He checked in three days early for retirement conference

County retirement board member Timothy Hancock and his wife spent six nights in a Waikiki Beach hotel at public expense this past spring, arriving at the island retreat three days ahead of a conference on public pensions.

The San Diego County Employees Retirement Association travel policy allows conferees to arrive only one day ahead of training sessions.

Last week, on the same day that U-T Watchdog asked about the spending, county officials requested and received a $445 reimbursement from Hancock for two of the six nights, spent in apparent violation of that policy.

Hancock, a county Probation Department worker who serves as an alternate on the pension board, did not respond to questions about why he arrived at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort on May 17.

Pension fund spokesman Dan Flores said Hancock was scheduled to attend a “pre-conference” ahead of the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, which opened its first general session May 20. He did not end up doing so.

The Hawaii conference was controversial even before it was held.

Early this year, U-T San Diego media partner The Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that dozens of public pension officials planned to travel to Hawaii for the event even though their portfolios are underfunded.

After the report, several pension officials around the state backed out of the trip. Three San Diego County trustees — Hancock, David Myers and E.F. “Skip” Murphy — confirmed they would still attend.

Myers canceled his trip on May 2, two weeks before the conference, citing duties at the sheriff’s department, where he is employed.

Murphy, like Hancock, received 16 hours of training over the five-day conference. The county pension system, which has enough funding for 79 percent of its pension obligations, spent $5,409 on the Hawaii event.